Lemon lavender “Smurf” cake!

I love a tart and tangy lemon cake any day. Lavender just adds a whole other dimension to the lemony goodness. Lemon-lavender is definitely one of my favourite flavour combinations: it works in cookies, cakes, ice cream, ice lollies, cocktail, you name it…

This is based on Nigella’s gluten-free lemon polenta cake, which I modified with the addition of lavender, and the seasonal fresh strawberries topping on a sugar glaze. When I showed Sami pictures of the cake, he laughed and laughed and said it was just like a Smurf cake. After Googling it, I did find the Smurf cake he was referring to. Anyhow the name stuck, no matter how many I mentioned that the Smurf version is a Bundt format and with cherries instead of strawberries.

Lemon-lavender gluten-free “Smurf” cake

For the cake

1 ¾sticks soft unsalted butter (plus some for greasing)

1cupsuperfine sugar

2cupsalmond meal

¾cup fine polenta (or cornmeal)

1 ½teaspoonsbaking powder (see note below)

3largeeggs

zest of 2lemons (save juice for syrup)

1 tablespoons dried lavender, plus a pinch or two to decorate the cake later

For the topping and sugar glaze

1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

1cupconfectioners’ sugar

a dozen fresh strawberries, washed and have the tops chopped off to make an even base

Instructions:

Line the base of a 21cm / 8inch springform cake tin with baking paper and grease its sides lightly with butter.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4/ 350°F.

Beat the butter and sugar till pale and whipped, either by hand in a bowl with a wooden spoon, or using a freestanding mixer.

Mix together the almonds, polenta and baking powder, and beat some of this into the butter-sugar mixture, followed by 1 egg, then alternate dry ingredients and eggs, beating all the while.

Finally, add the lemon zest and lavender buds. Don’t over mix; just stir with a spatula two or three times until just mixed.

Scrape the mixture into your prepared tin and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes.

Insert a toothpick into the middle of the cake to see if it’s cooked; if it is, the toothpick should come out clean-ish and, most importantly, the edges of the cake will have begun to shrink away from the sides of the tin. Remove from the oven to a wire cooling rack, but leave in its tin. Cool completely.

When the cake is cooled, remove it from its tin onto the wire cooling rack.

Then, in a bowl, mix together the lemon juice and icing sugar. The mixture should be thick and creamy. Don’t make this glaze before the cake cools, otherwise it’ll set and be unspreadable on the cake later.

Pour the sugar glaze over the cake, and leave to set (around 10-15 minutes) before adding the fresh strawberries.

Sprinkle some dried lavender buds on top for decoration.

NOTE: to make this cake gluten-free, make sure to use gluten-free baking powder, or omit the baking powder altogether and beat the batter exuberantly at step 4.